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4 articles from 2009

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Directors We Love: Alfred Hitchcock

1 November 2009 4:03 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

This is a no-brainer, right? Everyone loves Hitchcock. But it was not always so. The great director, whose North by Northwest comes out on a new, 50th Anniversary DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, was once considered a populist panderer with little artistic value in his work. Even if you were a film critic, it was not the done thing to explore the mood and structure of a film. And even the rare critic that did that, such as Manny Farber or James Agee, tended not to go crazy over Hitchcock's work. (He was too popular and supposedly did not need defending.) At the time, it was more important in film to have a strong moral message, or to impress audiences with size and scale. Hitchcock worked in the lowest genres, telling stories about creeps and murderers and kidnappers, none of which had any benefit to society. Yes, Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director five times, »

- Jeffrey M. Anderson

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Scores from Outer Space

30 September 2009 7:38 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Undertones: Volume 6 The classic science fiction film emerged during a period of great societal paranoia in the Us in the early 1950s. The post-WW2 environment saw an increased concern with nuclear armament and a fear of the infiltration of communism on the American way of life. Essentially, the sci-fi film was Hollywood’s great metaphor for these threats; its power largely dependent on playing on the fears of the cinema-goer. Many of the films were low-budget affairs pumped out by the studios; a steady stream of high-camp and cheap thrills in order to provide what one can only assume was constant necking-fodder for teens at drive-ins. Amongst these ‘B’ pictures, many of which have been long lost in time to the more technologically-savvy audiences of recent years but considered charming nostalgia to retro film junkies, are films that stand out for their innovation and social commentary and are considered classics by modern cinophiles. »

- Ricky

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Critics' Picks

27 June 2009 11:05 PM, PDT | NYPost.com | See recent New York Post news »

The New York Film Critics Circle, the nation's old est association of movie reviewers, turns 75 this year; and the Museum of Modern Art is marking the occasion with a 12-week series (Friday through Sept. 23) of award-winning films, each one chosen by a member of the group.

My choice, screening Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 10 at 4:30 p.m., is Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1954 French thriller "Les Diaboliques," shot in black and white, which does for bathtubs what Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" does for showers.

It unfolds in »

- By V.A. MUSETTO

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Hooch ‘n’ Harmonies

26 June 2009 9:54 AM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Undertones: Volume 2 In the 1940s the consumption of alcohol was predominantly glamorised on the silver screen. Starlets sipped sensuously on their g & t’s whilst detectives downed shots of whiskey before departing the office on a hot lead. If this was an accurate portrayal of the time, one has to ask how the hell anyone got anything done whilst being so heavily sauced. Despite the era’s predilection for depicting alcohol ingestion as a sophisticated way to spend one’s time, a film emerged from this period that actually dared to show the repercussions of excess binges with the bottle; Billy Wilder’s Oscar winning film, The Lost Weekend (1945). Starring Ray Milland in the lead role as Don Birham, a recovering alcoholic writer, The Lost Weekend follows four chaotic days as Birham jumps back on the wagon. Apart from classic Wilder dialogue and beautiful cinematography that recalls that of the »

- Clare Nina Norelli

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2009 | 2008 | 2003 | 2002

4 articles from 2009

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